Employees with Disabilities Community Network

Who we are

TMU’s Employees with Disabilities Community Network includes faculty and staff with visible and non-visible disabilities. Through their mutual support, members provide a diverse perspective of their experiences of living and working with disabilities. 

Members are not required to disclose their disability in the workplace or with members of the network. They have the option to participate through a confidential listserv only or to choose to participate in activities based on their interest and availability.

What we do

The network brings together employees with disabilities, providing them with a forum to support one another through shared understanding and experiences. We also raise awareness of those with disabilities and the challenges they face, and advocate to promote an equitable and inclusive workplace for all.

The group meets on a regular basis covering a range of topics determined by member interest. Our objectives include:

• provision of peer support and mentoring
• fostering a community of belonging
• generating discussion and ideas to enrich the experience of employees with disabilities
• supporting career development of employees with disabilities
• sharing strategies and tools
• serving as a liaison to address identified issues or barriers to inclusion
• promotes awareness and generates discussion around disability, accessibility and issues of equity, diversity and inclusion on the campus and beyond 

Check out Statistic Canada’s Eh Sayers podcast. The first episode focuses on disability in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, external link. Participants discuss the realities of people living with disabilities, their challenges and all the changes that the pandemic has brought in their daily lives.

Explore Statistics Canada’s Accessibility Data Hub, external link for data related to accessibility and disability. The hub offers disaggregated data (large data sets broken down by categories such as disability type and severity, age, region, gender, ethnicity, income level, etc.). This information can help users better understand the important differences in the experiences of different groups, including the barriers they face.

Talk by David Dame on International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) 2021

On December 10, 2021 in honour of IDPD, Human Resources hosted Microsoft's Director of Accessibility, David Dame for an engaging talk about:

• his lived experience as a person with a disability, 
• how intersectionality combines to create different modes of discrimination and privilege, and 
• his commitment to activism both personally and professionally. 

His talk also spoke to the intersections of disability, a critical framework to helping us to better understand discrimination, privilege and our roles as professionals.

On December 3, 2019 in honour of IDPD, Access TMU and the Employees with Disabilities Community Network presented Art at the Intersection of Visible and Invisible Identities featuring artists Apanaki Temitayo M and Sean Lee.

Get in touch 

To get in touch with the Employees with Disabilities Community Network, please contact: